My boss has basically said I am entitled to nothing as the bonus policy is there to 'incentivise people to stay'. So I asked if I could get out of my notice period a bit earlier. The notice period is 3 fucking months and she said no because 'she can't afford to lose another pair of hands'. I have worked SO hard over the last year and the cycle is August to August. To then be told I basically have no incentive to stay? But having to do so anyway?
If I stay to when I have originally said (7th September), I will fall just short of qualifying for my new jobs bonus scheme, so this bitch is basically costing me thousands at this point.
I am absolutely furious. I am being told to bin this, but I am scared to because I don't want there to be any legal repercussions. There is also the whole 'don't burn bridges' which I do not want to do because of future references and I am still relatively early in my career.
I plan on doing absolutely nothing over the next few months because I want to make it so that they're basically paying me to do nothing, but I don't know if I can last that long. I don't know if she knows how she sounds, but this is not going to make for a pleasant working environment for anyone – she knows I don't want to be there, why make me stay??
My other option is to just go sick for the next couple of months. The person before me did this and I am very surprised they haven't learned their lesson from that. I don't want to screw my colleagues over because they are not to blame at all, and I am genuinely friends with them outside of work. I know they will understand but fuck. I don't want to do that to them.
I am completely stuck and don't know what to do at this point. This is an absolute joke.
Edit: To add: at this point, I have also been sexually harassed at work. I am a gay guy, and they hired another gay guy who started sharing very intimate details of his sex life with me within 3 hours of meeting me. This happened twice and I raised it both times and was told basically to not put anything in writing.
I have also been mistakenly sent a new colleagues contract of employment and saw how much she was being paid, which was 10% more than me. They gave me a payrise 2 days later – despite their policy being that it is only in august that they can do so.
They also hired a complete tosspot and have basically let him get away with murder, which is also a slap in the face because I have raised it and no one has done anything about it. Pretty sure it's an old boys club thing.